Glazed bowl
Mértola, Beja, Portugal
Museum of Mértola
About Museum of Mértola, Mértola.
Hegira 339–90 / AD 950–1000
CR/VM/0002
Glazed ceramic made with compact pink paste, modelled on a wheel, fired in an oxidising atmosphere and decorated in green and purple.
Height 6 cm, maximum diameter 29 cm, diameter (of base) 17 cm
Umayyad al-Andalus / caliphate period
Probably Córdoba (Spain).
Glazed bowl with rounded everted rim, circular mouth, semi-oval body and flat base. The object has an exterior finish in honey-coloured monochrome glaze, and a polychrome glaze of white, green and purple in the interior, representing a plant motif consisting of a radial composition of eight lotus flowers topped by another set of eight oval lotus flowers. On the rim is a composition in four parts with alternating semi-circles and phytomorphic motifs. It has a defect at the bottom caused by the glaze coming into contact with another object in the kiln. The object has been restored.
View Short DescriptionGlazed bowl with a plant motif consisting of a radial composition of eight triangular lotus flowers each topped with an oval lotus flower. This piece is similar to others found in Madinat al-Zahra and probably came from the Córdoba region.
The stratigraphic context in which the object was found was very disordered, which led to its being dated to the second half of the 4th / 10th century, by comparison with objects of identical form found in Madinat al-Zahra (Córdoba, Spain).
Found in the archaeological excavations carried out by the Campo Arqueológico de Mértola in the citadel of the Castle of Mértola.
The shape, ornamental theme and type of paste used are very similar to ceramics from the Córdoba area.
Gómez Martínez, S., “Catálogo da Cerâmica”, in Museu de Mértola. Arte Islâmica, ed. S. Macias, Mértola, 2001, p.111.
Gómez Martínez, S., “La Cerámica de Verde y Morado de Mértola”, Arqueologia Medieval, no. 3, 1994, p.125.
Torres, C. and Gómez, S., “Le Vert et Brun au Portugal”, in Le Vert et le Brun de Kairouan à Avignon: Céramiques du Xe au XVe Siècle,exhibition catalogue, Marseilles, 1995, pp.98–102.
Torres, C. and Macias, S. (eds.), O Portugal Islâmico, Lisbon, 1998, p.97.
Susana Gómez Martínez "Glazed bowl" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;pt;Mus01;8;en
MWNF Working Number: PT 11
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